Health

5:35 pm

Tue January 31, 2012

Komen Drops Support of Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood clinical assistant Nicki Bailey discusses the new abortion laws with a patient in Austin.

Eric Schlegel, Texas Tribune

The Dallas-based breast cancer prevention group Susan G. Komen for the Cure has halted its financial support of Planned Parenthood, yet another blow to the family planning organization that provides abortions in some of its clinics.

Planned Parenthood alleges that Komen — which was founded in 1982 by Nancy Goodman Brinker, a former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary under George W. Bush, to honor her deceased sister — succumbed to rising political pressure.

"Our greatest desire is for Komen to reconsider this policy and recommit to the partnership on which so many women count," Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement posted on the organization's website.

No one could be reached for comment at Komen for the Cure. A Komen spokesperson told The Associated Press that the funding cutoff, which will halt the flow of hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for breast exams, is the result of a new policy that bans grants to groups under federal investigation. U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, has launched an inquiry into whether Planned Parenthood has spent taxpayer money on abortions, something that federal law prohibits. Planned Parenthood has vehemently denied this, calling the investigation politically motivated.